Living With Little Internet

It’s funny how you think you can’t live without something until you have to.

My Internet has been acting up. Web pages either load slowly or not at all. It’s not my computer. I own 2 and both are having issue. Hulu and Netflix won’t open on my Wii. Can’t ask my provider about it until I get the money to pay my bill so, for the past week, I’ve been acting like I don’t have Internet at home. Because of Sandy, I couldn’t go someplace with free WiFi until last Friday. I had to walk 40 minutes to the library. Not really a long walk, it’s just not one I would’ve made unless I had to.

The interesting thing is, I’ve gotten kind of used to it. Don’t get me wrong, I can’t wait to get it fixed but I’m not suffering from withdraw. It’s weird. On a regular day, I can spend hours online between Social Media, research for my book, helping my mother with her business and news (I get all my news online- current events, publishing industry trends, what movies are coming out, what people in the horror and fantasy worlds are talking about) Maybe it’s because I can still check my email and do a little Web surfing on my phone. Most Social Medias have an app. Like I’m writing this post on my phone. I wrote the previous post on my phone as well.

I took this opportunity to finish editing my first book, work on my second one and do more world building. Annoyance only came when I needed a Thesaurus but the one in Word and the Dictionary.com app weren’t giving me what I wanted. Just realized I own a print Thesaurus. Completely forgot about it.

What almost did me in was, without Internet, I have little shows and movies to watch. I got rid of my cable like a year and a half ago deciding it would cost less to rely on Hulu and Netflix. On top of that, unless the movie is super amazing, like Avengers, I don’t buy it. I don’t have Netflix mail me DVDs cause it costs less to stream everything online.

I was fine during the day but late nights when all I wanted to do was relax with some mind-numbing show, I’d go a little stir crazy. Playing video games helped a lot but there are only so many hours you can do that before your eyes go cross. Unfortunately, I’m a night owl. I can be up till like 2 or 3 in the morning.

I actually bought movies yesterday. Turns out, finding a good DVD was harder than I thought. By the end of my hunt, I was in a bad mood. Best Buy and Target have horrible DVD sections. Got me wondering if I’m not the only one who stopped buying them. Even with the movies I want, I don’t by the DVD, I download them from iTunes.

Speaking of things I had to live without…my apartment is across the street from the subway. I hear the train. 3 years and you get used to the noise. Again, because of Sandy, my train hasn’t been running. Without it, a 30 minute trip into Manhattan takes almost 2 hours. After days of silence, I’m hearing it again. I smile every time the lady announces the stops and when the train rumbles as it comes and goes. Got to be one of the most beautiful sounds in the world.